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I submitted my personal return this morning and my last client about 1/2 hour ago. The 2016 season is a wrap, except for a few extensions. For whatever reason, this was one of my more difficult seasons. Between the extra checklists for the Child Care Credits & EIC, and the clients missing information, it was a trying season. Maybe a lack of motivation on my part played into it also. In any event, thanks to everyone on this board for being a source of reference and a group that I have come to depend on. I sincerely appreciate all of your input and wish you an "off season" filled with relaxation. I'm sure I'll still see you around here over the summer and fall! Best to all of you!

Personally, if the situation were reversed and I were about to receive a pain-in-the-ass client, I would appreciate knowing the history up front. I work in a different field, of course, but dealing with people is dealing with people. And I prefer not to deal with the ones who don't value my time.

I filed extensions on everything as it came in due to my "one-pass" rule this year. I think I'm going to start using it in the future. When info came in, if I could complete the return in one pass, I did so. Anything whatsoever that stopped the process - missing info, questions, etc - meant I generated an extension before putting the file away. No compromises, no exceptions. So there wasn't much to do in the past few weeks other than work normally. A couple of stragglers did show up this past week, and of course they get extensions right out of the box. The funniest one happened yesterday afternoon, when one I fired last year called to say his new wife is trying to get their return filed by the deadline and they need info from their 2015 return. (Of course he can't find his copy - that's the nature of these things. It also validates one of my reasons for the firing). So I sent them the copy, but also told her she should file an extension rather than stay up all night. I'm betting I'll get a panic call today on how to do the extension. I'm enough of a softie to help them out, because deep down I even appreciate the past loyalty of some of those I don't care to work with any more.

Have you heard the joke about the interesting tax accountant? A couple was getting divorce and they both agreed who ever gets more money from the divorce gets to keep the kids, the attorney now has two additional kids.

Just checked my machine while I'm away and message from client at about 1pm, "Hi, Bill, just wanted you to know I just made the deposit for my extensions." I'm contemplating whether to call him or save a dime and let him wait for the government to contact him. And, he's SE and pays no est payments. Must be a penalty or two or three in there.

I have folders chronologically by the date I received the LAST bit of info, or at least the last bit the client knew to bring me or I knew to ask. But, the clients think they should be in my queue based on the date they gave me their FIRST bit. I think filing extensions when I know we're waiting on something - or when I discover something's missing - is a great idea; copying the client on it at that point might save me lots of time explaining why they're not done after all this time and make me feel less rushed the last few days. And, maybe motivate them to find the missing items sooner. I'm not preparing any more returns until returning from a visit to granddaughter. Washer continues off balance as I try to wash months' loads of laundry. Dryer is grinding away, because I gave up and put very wet clothes in. Waiting on some state acceptances. Hubby taking our IL extension with check to PO. More extensions than last year. The changed deadlines really broke my stride this year. Some clients unhappy with extensions, but at my age I don't care. Rescheduled chiropractor from yesterday with lots of signatures/e-filing to this afternoon and really need to get there. Pinched nerve in lower back radiates down my leg. I can get comfortable sitting at my computer, but that's probably the worst thing for it. I can't get comfortable to sleep, and I've been in bed so little anyway that laying awake hurting is the last thing I need. Hopefully, running around after a toddler will be good activity for me! Collating extensions and checking completed returns and looking for anyone or a state or anything I missed. Then it's back to laundry so I can pack to go to PA. Happy vacations, everyone!

That sounds great except that I find stuff missing as I go. Like that dividend mentioned earlier. Everything else was set - but I had no dividend, and it had to be checked. In that case it turned out fine. But then there are the people who have stock trades and a quick check shows basis info - then looking in more detail later, either there are entire pages with no basis or they are noted as ESPP's or RSU's and then I need stock option details that the client did not give. Always something. I really do not understand how the big box stores do returns while-you-wait because of the missing items! Then again, I've seen some of their product (can't call them returns...) and maybe that explains it all.

I'm done for the day except for waiting on one elderly woman to tell me if she paid the federal estimates I set up, and she called to tell me that she has to do her in-home exercise therapy first, and then she'll call me back. She's pretty hard of hearing, so I hope that she understood that I need her to call back today. Other than her return there are a few that are on extension that are either done or almost so. All extensions done except for the one federal.

Two scheduled appointments and two unscheduled appointments so far today....Years ago I had 11 scheduled appointments on the final day.

I'd say that 1/3 of those for whom I filed extensions were still completed before this week. So for that subset, the extension was an unnecessary extra step. But for the remaining 2/3, none of them are on my mind today (aside from this post). I don't usually make fun of my clients, but I did have a phone call about 10:00 this morning from one whom I asked last Nov to find another preparer. Nice client, but just required too much handholding. I'd post the audio just to prove I'm not making this up, but that's probably a privacy issue. Anyhow, here goes (one long sentence without taking a breath - I inserted commas simply to make it easier to read): "John, this is xxx and I can't find my return from last year for my new tax person, my house is on the market and I hope somebody didn't steal it but I cant' find 2016 anywhere, OH WAIT A MINUTE here's the 2015 return and, oh yeah we're doing 2016 aren't we? Never mind, hope you're doing fine." (click) This could be a great Gilda Radner skit on "SNL for Accountants" Since the call was at 10:00, and since we have a long history, I'm betting her appointment was for 10:15.

I considered myself done early Sunday morning when I checked on a few acceptances. On 4/11 I emailed all my stragglers asking if they wanted an extension to contact me. The usual 2 did not. Last night they both called and left messages. I'm off on my annual regain my sanity tour so I emailed them with brief instructions to file their own online. That felt really good, so good.

we only have 67 left whooo hooo!

Side note - I said nothing bad about the client; these were all presented as techniques for successful handling. And not until after we'd had the discussion about his years of late filing penalties for 1099's and tax returns. And a chat about the tax lien on his house that was the final straw to get him to bring me the two years' worth of IRS letters - all for a matter that I could have fixed in an hour had he brought the first letter over on receipt.

Plus you can sit and read or snooze or daydream or do your nails or ......

Ever consider taking the huge piles to a laundromat and running them all in parallel rather than in series? Might be faster and cheaper in the long run if you really have a backlog!

Catherine, I would be in the same boat. So many of mine would trickle in little bits at a time so it drug out over a few weeks. My letter for next year now says ALL of their information must be in before I will start work. I received 11 envelopes of info from one of my out of town clients. The day after I sent it to her, I received another one. Fortunately, it was not anything that I needed. I have had some rough times this year with several clients that are all alone and have dementia. I am still trying to figure out who to call about one that should not be driving. Back to the grind of printing returns and getting payment forms ready.

Oooh, I *like* this idea! Of course, that would mean that just about ALL of my client returns go on extension... No matter how carefully (some of them) try to gather information, there seems always to be some tidbit or other missing (sometimes freight trucks full missing, too). One guy who is always very meticulous was complete except that there were no dividends listed for one company. So he had to go look that up - turns out no dividends were paid in 2016, but the research had to be done since there usually are dividends from them. That one got filed on time because he brought his stuff in early.

I'm still filing extensions. Rick is going through my checkbook tallying the 2 home offices so I can do my return tomorrow.

Very Handsome children, though! ...............

I would just tell them "Good luck."

Only if I referred the client to a buddy tax preparer, and I would have told my buddy before he accepted the client. Otherwise, no way would I talk about that to a successor accountant.

Amen!

Tell him that you will answer him after today. Then get back to him when you are able.

I'm never going to be done. On a lighter note, my and girlfriend are on the phone, because they can't figure out how to sign the returns that I sent them or make their payments. I'm dying off laughing. They don't teach them anything in college. We learned how to do them with the form and pencil in personal finance in high school.

I have a bunch of NJ clients this year. Unless the payment is over a certain amount, the payment has to be electronic. I'm having anyone that owes pay on the NJ website

I wish I was done, but I still have appointments coming in tomorrow and one promised out, the rest are just waiting on signatures.

Submitted my last two. Everyone else is on extension. Will now turn some attention to answering the "weird" questions and issues that pop up at this time. Such as, (1) "thanks for filing our extension. Once our taxes are complete, can we talk with you about helping to file our quarterly nanny taxes?" --Uh, WHAT nanny? Hired when? Using what to calculate pay amounts? or (2) "So why do I need to pay so much for my s-corporation? Why didn't it pay taxes itself?" From someone who decided to go to an SBIR "specialist" for his brand-new s-corporation, which bozos charged him almost $10K for annual "accounting" but never told him about the whole pass-through aspect, or told him that he was making gobs of money and might want to make estimated payments quarterly. That kind of fun stuff. Then print and mail out completed returns that were approved of by electronic copy of major forms, and faxed signatures. And include the bills for those returns! I did block out this entire week (after tomorrow) as NOT available for client appointments.

I think the lawyers always get the most money. Had a client who constantly asked me legal questions, and I'd tell her to ask her lawyer. She said he charges a lot more than I do!

See you... enjoy your vacation

I agree, when I take on a new client, I always ask if the prior accountant has been paid before I start requesting information from them.

Nope! That would not be my concern. I have enough of my own problems without taking on those of other practitioners - present group being the exception to that statement of course.

Well, I think its against the law or some credit-reporting something-or-another rule to tell the truth nowadays, isn't it? Nevertheless, if I was still mad, I might try to find some subtle, non-litigable way to pass on my impression. Not "That no-good S.O.B still owes me $250 from 2013," but maybe "He's okay, but I'd count my silverware."

I think you might be out of luck on adding that back to arrive at modified AGI. I haven't dealt with this waiver specifically, but that waiver falls under sec 131 of the code, and sec 36B includes only the 3 lines of items to add back to arrive at modified AGI: income excluded under sec 911, the t/e interest, and the portion of n/t social security. The income waiver under sec 131 isn't one of them. Sometimes the tax code isn't logical, and even when we wish the outcome to be different, we can't make it come out to a fair outcome. I think it is the case with your client, just like those taxpayers that accept the APTC and then receive a lump-sum payment social security settlement that has a cascade effect on the return and causes the credit's disallowance and payback of the credit.

We were in Gatlinburg and found a nice 2 BR condo very reasonable, but it was in January. You can spit and hit Pigeon Forge from there, so when you are looking, look all around. This is the condo where we stayed. Straight up a mountain, the view was great. I've stayed in cleaner places, but it was very comfortable. http://www.ourplaceinthesmokies.com/great-escape.html

P.S. Just noticed, but the DCN has been replaced by an SID (Submission Identification Number), however each return's got some oddball numbers and symbols after each one so maybe it will still work.

I think this will work. Although we're only sending efiles from one computer now; several years ago for some reason I wanted to also send in returns at the same time on our second computer. So, I just (as you say) jumped the beginning number up about 500 numbers or so and everything went through just fine.

Shouldn't be a problem to install on another machine. MeF did away with the DCN when it started using the submission ID numbers but some states were still using them. ATX (I think in '15)may have removed the DCN from the e-file manager, but it might still be in the setup somewhere. You know I don't use ATX any more, but if I recall correctly, the DCN starting number was in the preparer setup/preparer manager area. IF it's still in the program's setup, then all you should have to do is to tell the program to start the DCN series with a number higher than the last return you filed through the old computer so that there isn't an overlap of numbers used for filing. If you don't know the last number, but know that you usually file about 300 returns, just start the new machine with something like '400' and you shouldn't have a problem.

I have no idea, but I'm really sorry this happened to you.

I don't even know how many I have left. I definitely have several extension payments to figure out. Why did everybody sell a ton of real estate at huge gains and then all come in at once? This morning, a broker tried to tell me that selling the PTP should not be a big deal and definitely not taxable. This has been my worst year EVER! Over 50% of the returns came in 2 1/2 weeks before my deadline and I was still getting information for returns this morning. Next year, I don't think I will have a deadline in my letter and just say that it will be FIFO when ALL of their information is here.

I am a faithful Drake user for eight years. They have had one price increase in 25 years. Prior to that I was with TaxSlayer, but found their state programs for corporations and entities severely lacking. TaxSlayer did fine for Georgia and South Carolina, and was a success story - having started with a chain of 22 tax prep offices in Augusta area. They got tired of being held hostage by software companies so they developed their own. Good support staff but software was weak for many states and other entities. Prior to the CCH, I used ATX for 4 years. They increased their price every year. About 15 years ago, they had a massive crash and the support staff did everything they could to get me off the phone because the volume of complaints was mountainous. Users received an apology from the CEO at the end of that tax season, and an offer of financial substance. The "financial substance" was a discount on travel tickets to Europe, and a stiff price increased loomed large even after the poor performance for the year. I bailed. On the positive side, ATX is the only software I know using the tax forms as an input guide instead of the DOS-inherited questionnaire format. I've tried to get Drake to adopt this, but to no avail.

After ATX, the first three returns will feel really weird and awkward. then you'll start getting the hang of it and be able to fly through the entry screens. I thought having to go to View mode to see a form would be really annoying - but it loads faster than switching pages in ATX.